Shovel Talk
by Lynyrd Lionheart
Summary: The Avengers can be a little over-protective, especially in regards to one of their member's daughter. Klaus never expected that when he turned the pretty blonde, he'd end up on the receiving end of every gun and threat that Earth's Mightiest Heroes could come up with.
1. Prelude

**AN: This is not the sequel to **_**I am Iron Man('s Daughter)**_**. That is still in the works, but I got convinced that I should write another crossover that's strictly Klaroline, and Klaus getting the shovel talk from the Avengers. This chapter just sets everything up, but it is necessary. Once again, Caroline is Tony's daughter, except this time he (and probably more Pepper) raised her. TVD progressed as it did in canon, just with no Caroline, and Klaus went to New Orleans, but there was no baby. The story takes place during **_**Captain America: Winter Soldier**_**. **

**The Shovel Talk: Prelude**

The blonde was probably pretty, when she wasn't so bloody.

The observation was made almost distantly. Klaus was still half caught up in blood lust and anger at the fools that had dared to try and harm him. They were all dead, ripped to pieces or drained dry in order to heal him. He wasn't sure who had sold him out – his best guess was Marcellus, or perhaps the treacherous little Hayley whom had been sniffing around the bayou – but they would pay dearly, just as these foolish men had.

"Are you here to kill me?"

The voice was weak, but almost sharp, and for a moment Klaus was confused, not seeing anyone around that could have spoken. Then he looked at the blonde once more, strapped to the table with bruises and haunted eyes, and he realized that it had been _her_ voice he had heard. He had thought her unconscious, her slow heartbeat telling him she wasn't dead, but her shallow breath making him think she wasn't conscious.

"Do I have a reason to kill you?"

The girl looked at him, and he thought her rather foolish, looking at him such defiance when they were surrounded by his massacre. But her hazel eyes… they had a light to him, one that he had seen in very few in his thousand years of life.

"Do you need one?"

Klaus stalked up to her and looked down. She was strapped to the table at writs, ankles, neck, and forehead. They were simple leather straps that he could have easily broken, but this girl was human. Instead, he could see the signs of her struggle written into her skin – angry red burns where she had strained at the straps until they bit into her skin. He should leave her. She was no business of his, and he needed to get back to his city and the traitors it harbored.

But there was something in her gaze…

She recoiled when he reached down, but Klaus ignored it, instead giving the straps tugs that easily set her free. When she realized that he wasn't going to harm her, she looked up at him in confusion.

"Why?" was all she asked.

"You have fire to you. I can appreciate that."

He looked at her, the bruises and shallow cuts and the dark bags under eyes. He contemplated what he was considering for a moment before he let his fangs drop. The girl gulped, staring up at him, but didn't recoil this time. He wondered if that was a sign of bravery, or if movement was simply too painful.

"Drink up love," he said, holding his wrist to her mouth, and she stared up at him in horror. Klaus sighed heavily, and forced the blood into her mouth, not in the mood to deal with a foolish girl that feared the unknown. She coughed, trying to spit the blood back out, but enough went down that she began to heal, and he gave a slight nod. "There you go. All better."

"What the hell?" she murmured, staring at her healing arms with awe. He saw, as her bruised face faded back to clear skin, that she _was_ a pretty girl without the wounds. She was young – in her late teens or early twenties – and her skin seemed to glow, now that it was healed. He paused for a moment to look at her, and her head snapped up so she could stare at him in return. He saw the flare of fear, because his blood had healed her, and she didn't know it was possible. But rather than scream or swoon as many humans he encountered did, he watched as she swallowed, her delicate throat bobbing, and then tilted her head proudly, stiffening her spine. "Thank-you."

She pushed herself off the table and held onto the edge, as if uncertain her legs would be able to hold her weight. When they kept her upright, she took a careful step away, then another, gaining more confidence as she realized that, with his blood, she had been fully healed. Klaus watched her, quirking his head and feeling somewhat surprised. There was no _what are you?_ or _who are you?_ from the delicate girl. After a moment, once she was sure on her feet, she bent down to one of the massacred bodies and removed a gun from it. He watched with some surprise as she held it and looked over it with the eye of someone that knew what she was doing, before turning to him.

"Do you know how we get off of this thing?"

Klaus didn't reply at first, more interested in trying to figure this girl with the cool hazel eyes out. She wasn't nearly as panicked as he had expected. Then he heard shots from down a hall, and reminded himself that they were not alone on this aircraft, and that there were still more men to kill.

"This way," he said, motioning toward the door. "Although you may not wish to accompany me. I'm afraid there are still more that I wish to see dead."

"They had me strapped to that table, tor… torturing me" – a shiver ran through her body, as though she recalled what had been done, and shadows danced in her eyes – "I want them dead too."

"Blood thirsty." Klaus felt a smirk quirk his lips as he watched the girl check that the safety on the gun was off. "What's your name, Love?"

"Caroline," she replied shortly.

"And I am Klaus." He looked to the door as another gun went off, and then smirked at her once more. "Shall we?"

SHOVEL TALK

Caroline had never seen anyone move as quickly as Klaus. It had been terrifying, when she'd been half unconscious between sessions on the table, and it was even more so now that she was wide awake, apparently healed by his blood of all things.

She probably shouldn't get a twisted sense of glee out of seeing her companion quite literally rip apart the armed men they faced, but she couldn't help but feel it anyway. They had spent days trying to force her mind to their will. She hadn't realized brainwashing was a thing, not until faced with HYDRA and their methods and…

Caroline shivered. She had screamed. She had screamed and begged and pleaded – things a Stark was never meant to do – and when she hadn't been able to beg and plea or scream because her voice was gone, she had fallen to silent tears and nearly given in. It had been so tempting… so tempting to simply do what they wanted. To _be_ what they wanted. But memories of her father's return from Afghanistan, the nightmares he still had, kept her spin rigid, and then _he_ had torn into the lab and torn her captors apart –

And part of Caroline had _reveled_ in that. Had enjoyed it, seeing those men torn to pieces and left like the broken toys they had wanted her to become.

She saw a man aim a gun at Klaus and raised her own. She had been taught to shoot – first by her sheriff mother, then later by her arms dealer father, before he had brought that business to an end to become Iron Man – but she'd never had cause to actually use that ability on someone. Not until today. She'd always thought she would hesitate.

She didn't.

"Good aim, Love," Klaus commented, the blood that streaked his arms and face fresh once more. He looked like a demon, or maybe like an avenging angel, with his dirty blonde hair and charming dimples and monstrous yellow eyes that seemed to glow as he looked at her.

Caroline wondered what she looked like. Probably half dead and filthy.

She looked at the body of the man she had killed and expected to feel something – guilt and grief… maybe even relief? – but all she felt was empty.

"I want to get out of here," she told Klaus, feeling another shiver run down her spine. Did that emptiness mean that, even in death, HYDRA had still won? That even though Caroline hadn't given in, she still wasn't herself. She wasn't golden, giggling Caroline, studying interior design at NYU and otherwise being a socialite of highest standing. Because that Caroline wouldn't have felt nothing. Not like this one did.

"Please, don't let me stop you."

He waved her down the next hall, and this time he let her lead. She swung the gun up, finger hovering over the trigger in preparation. She could hear more guns, but it seemed to be at a distance. When she looked out the window, she could see that they were hovering above D.C. It was the first glance she'd gotten out a window in days, and it made her incredibly homesick for the New York skyline. Would she get to see it again?

Another gun went, closer this time, and she felt her muscles tense in reaction. Klaus was at her side, still moving far too quickly – quickly enough to put even good ol' Cap himself to shame – and he rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment, before quickly removing it, as though he weren't at all used to offering comfort.

"You should find shelter," he informed her, his gaze hardening on her.

"What happened to _please, don't let me stop you_?" Caroline replied, hefting her gun, because she wasn't a child, and she didn't need to be hidden away while the big bad wolf took care of things.

Ah… the big bad _whatever_ Klaus was.

"I'm suddenly reminded that you're quite human," Klaus replied with an airy shrug. "But if you wish to die, then indeed _please, don't let me stop you_."

_What are you_? was on the tip of her tongue, but Caroline forced it back down. She didn't want to know – _she didn't_. Her sanity depended on keeping as far out of… _all of this_ as her paternity allowed her. Alien invasions and men that could move faster than she could see… she didn't want the details. She didn't want that to be a daily part of her life.

"I won't," she informed him instead, and it was probably stupid of her, not to take his protection, and to let her pride run with her. But these bastards had locked her up and tortured her for _days_. They'd planned to kill her father and set her up as puppet heiress to the empire – HYDRA's little doll. They deserved to die, and _she_ deserved to watch them.

"You're a little blood thirsty aren't you, Sweetheart?" Klaus murmured, nearly making her jump when his breath came up hot against her ear. She hadn't realized he was so close. He took a step back at her recoil, though his expression was thoughtful.

"What makes you say that?" she demanded, looking away from him and back to where she was moving.

"It's a look in the eye and a scent in the air… you're on the hunt, and I don't think you're out to merely maim, Love."

"Your pet names are getting on my nerves, Klaus."

He said nothing, and then they came upon the gunshots, and even if he were to say something, she wouldn't have heard it, because she stepped into chaos.

And Caroline wasn't at all prepared for it.

Holding a gun, even shooting it, was different from this, and despite her earlier thoughts of vengeance, when Klaus grabbed her and hid her behind a desk while he once more turned monster on the armed men, not seeming to care if they were friend or foe, she let him. For a second, she screwed up her eyes and hugged her knees, because this _wasn't_ her life. She was Tony Stark's airheaded daughter – a socialite, a Type-A personality, a honor roll student. She wasn't _this_.

_You are now_, a cold voice of reason piped up amid the chaos of her thoughts. _They made you a victim, and now you can cower, or you can _fight.

Gulping for air to calm her shaking hands, Caroline reached for the gun once more. Tightening her hold, she came out from behind her barricade and positioned herself to shoot.

_One._

She ignored the blood that spattered when she made a head shot. The same calm that had come over her earlier returning once more.

_Two_.

Another one down, and Klaus shooting her a quick, almost surprised look. She thought he might be a little impressed, but ignored any part of her that might be smug about that, focusing on her targets again.

_Three_.

This one twitched, and earned another shot, just to be sure.

_Four._

It was becoming rhythm now. Almost as though she were born to shoot a gun, and maybe Caroline should send Liz a thank-you text when this was all said and done.

_Five_.

Caroline frowned, because she hadn't pulled the trigger. It took a moment, before she realized something was wrong. Looking down, she saw blood on the plain white clothes they had dressed her in. It wasn't the dried mess that was the result of HYDRA's hospitality, though. This was fresh and vibrant, and her fingers were going numb. The gun fell from them as she fell to her knees.

She had been shot.

She reached out to touch the wound, as she felt something wet fall from the corner of her lips, but her hand fell limply to her side before it could reach it. She looked up and met Klaus' gaze, and he was even more monstrous than before when he saw her. He roared at something behind her and flew toward her.

Was he going to kill her?

Caroline didn't know. Her whole world went black.

SHOVEL TALK

The man that had shot the girl, Caroline, had time to do little more than gurgle before Klaus ripped his head right from his shoulders. He didn't want to investigate it too closely, the rage he felt when he looked at Caroline and saw her shocked expression, the blood blossoming from her chest. But she had a… a light to her. One that hadn't been extinguished by torture, though it was clear the experience had been foreign to her. And then she had handled herself so proficiently, despite her initial terror upon entering bedlam.

So he tore off the man's head and then ignored the others to go to her side.

He tore open his wrist with his teeth and tried to feed her more blood, but she didn't respond. Her eyes stared vacantly upward, devoid of the light and life that had lit them, and he carefully closed them, before lifting her in his arms.

He would have stayed, to kill more of these men, except that Caroline would need him soon.

She was dead now, a bullet to the heart doing damage even his blood couldn't repair… but that meant that she died with that same blood still in his system. She _would_ come back, though she might not be happy with the state. But no matter, she would adjust. He carefully cradled her in one arm, and grabbed a man that came at him, clearly with intent to kill, and rammed his head into the wall. He would serve another purpose on this day.

Caroline would make a fantastic vampire.

SHOVEL TALK

The sun hurt her eyes.

That's the first thing she was aware of.

The sun hurt her eyes, the whole world entirely too bright, and she let out a moan of unhappiness.

"You're awake," she heard a familiar voice murmur. "Good. Come back to me now, Love."

She blinked her eyes open, and shielded them with a hand, using her other to push herself into a sitting position.

"Klaus," she said, seeing the blonde man sitting next to her. She was in a bar, lying on a table, and she wondered how long she had been there, because she felt… _sore_, and odd. As though she didn't belong in her own body. She frowned, trying to remember what had happened.

The shot, the one that hadn't come from her gun. She looked down in alarm, hands running over her chest. She was still in the blood stained clothing, but while there was a bullet hole, the skin beneath was whole.

"Your blood again," she said looking up at Klaus. He watched her with steepled fingers. "I guess I should thank you."

"Not this time," he admitted after a long pause. "I'm afraid you died, Caroline."

She blinked in confusion, because surely he hadn't just said that she'd _died_. Not when she was clearly perfectly fine, sitting on an uncomfortable table in clothes that itched from dried blood and gore.

"You died, and now there's only one way that you will be able to continue to live."

She remained silent, because speaking meant asking questions. Questions she didn't want answered, because they would change her world. They would tell her what _he_ was, and that meant inviting the weird into her world, when there was already too much weird she didn't want to know about –

He pulled a man out from behind the bar. His eyes were glazed over, and he moved with Klaus as though he were a well-trained puppy. She recognized him. He had seemed to like her screams more than anyone else.

"What are you doing, Klaus?" she asked at last, because she needed to ask _something_, and that seemed safest. Klaus positioned the man in front of him and looked at her.

"Showing you what needs to be done, Caroline."

The monster took over his features, yellow eyes glowing, veins growing prominent, and teeth becoming double fangs that he used to strike the man's neck. He just stared vacantly ahead, as though a monster weren't mauling his neck, and Caroline expected to be sick.

Instead… she grew _hungry._ Her eyes closed when the scent of blood hit her nostrils, but instead of disgusting her, it made her breathe in deeply. She had never felt anything so _sweet_, so _tempting_.

She didn't know what she had done, not until the blood hit her tongue, and then she didn't care.

"That's it, Caroline," Klaus murmured, moving behind her and catching her hair in his hand, pulling it back over her shoulder. "Have at it."

She took another desperate pull, clutching to the man's shoulders as though he might try to run. But he didn't, and she drank. His heartbeat was a staccato in her ears – ba-dump, ba-dump – and then it began to slow. Slow and grow sluggish, as though it were slowing as though it were –

Caroline leapt back, and she moved so quickly that she slammed through a table to get to the wall. It was a distance of fifteen feet that she had covered in under a second, the table no barrier to her, easily shattered beneath the force of her body, and Caroline dug her fingers into the wall, feeling it give way beneath her grip.

"What did you do to me?" she whispered in horror, her fingers coming up to her mouth (her blood-stained mouth), and coming in contact with fangs. They weren't double like his, but they were fangs, and she let out a low moan.

"You died, Sweetheart," Klaus said, stepping toward her. "This was the only way."

"You didn't tell me," she hissed angrily, and she moved once more, before even realizing it, and sent him flying back. He crashed into a table and easily regained his feet, and Caroline went at him once more, anger and superior speed allowing her to-

Get caught up in his arms, twist her around so her back was to her chest and his wrists her in his hands. She struggled, but he was so damn strong, and even with her new strength, she was nothing to the power in his body.

"Calm down," he ordered against her ear, and she thrashed. He let out a low growl and grasped her upper arms, turning her to face him. She was forced to look into his eyes, watch his pupils dilate, "_calm down_."

Against her will, she felt her muscles relax, and he let go of his hold on her.

"What was that?" she asked, though it didn't hold the demand she wanted. Instead, it almost came out slurred, she was so relaxed.

"Compulsion" – he brushed her hair away from her cheek, but she could see that some of the strands were red with the man's blood – "you'll be able to do that. To humans, not me or any others of our kind."

"Our kind?" the words were out before she could stop them, because she still didn't want to know. But now it was out, and she would.

"Come now, Love," his expression was amused and somewhat fond. "You know the answer."

She stared at him, refusing to say anything, and he sighed and ran his hand down her hair once more.

"Vampire, Love. You're a vampire. So am I, though with a little… extra. But those lessons will come later"- he went to the man's side once more and bent down – "He's still alive, and you should finish eating."

"I'm not going to kill him," Caroline replied, her mind revolting against the thought. Murder… murder was something she didn't do. Something her father _fought_ against. And her mother.

"After all he did, you wish to show him mercy?" Klaus asked with a raised brow. Caroline looked back stubbornly and Klaus sighed, his hands resting on either side of the man's head. With a hard jerk, he snapped his neck, the sound making Caroline wince, and then dropped the body to the floor. "You'll learn, Love. Mercy in our world will only get you killed."

"Then I'll stay in _my_ world. Thanks."

"Oh?" Klaus raised an amused brow. "Fine. Then perhaps you should leave."

He waved at the door and Caroline frowned at him, looking for the lie in his actions. But he didn't move when she stepped toward the door, and so she picked up space, flinging the door open – only to have the sun burn her skin. She let out a howl and flashed away, back into the shadows the bar. Klaus sauntered up to the door, clearly taking his time, and shut it firmly.

"Some of the myths are true," he informed her. She gritted her teeth and looked at her burned skin – only to watch it knit back together. She stared with interest until it was unmarred, then ran her fingers along it. Klaus was in front of her before she'd realized he'd moved, cradling her hand with his. "And there are some benefits, as you can see."

"You can go in the sun," she told him, pulling her hand back. "How?"

Klaus pulled a ring out of his pocket and handed it to her. She took it, looking at it curiously. It had a blue stone – bright and vibrant, set in silver.

"Lapis Lazuli and charmed by a witch," in a flash it was removed from her hand, and she glared at him as he smirked, "listen to me, and you can have it."

"I have a life. A dad. I'm Caroline _Stark_. People are going to notice I'm missing and look for me, Klaus. I can't just disappear."

Klaus frowned at her for a moment, before reaching out to stroke her blood stained hair. He shook his head.

"Foolishness," he murmured, cradling her cheek, and she found herself rubbing her cheek against his palm, enjoying the touch. "And so sensitive. Everything is heightened, do you think you can so easily control it all?"

"I have to try," she replied stubbornly, inhaling his scent. It was nearly as good as the blood had been, and with that hunger quenched, she found another rising. Her eyes opened, meeting his, and she fisted her hand in his t-shirt, pulling him down for a kiss. He didn't fight, but he did take over, whirling her around to press her back against the wall. Caroline buried her fingers in his hair and rubbed against him, making him growl against her lips.

"Very good attempt at trying, Sweetheart," he said, his voice a growl. It made Caroline flash away, her fingers coming up to her lips.

"That was… I mean… it won't happen again" – her hand dropped to her side, fingers clenched in a fist – "I'm a control freak. I'll get this."

"Stubborn," he muttered, rolling his eyes to the sky. "And foolish. So very, very foolish."

She found the ring in her hand once more, his body pressed up against hers and igniting those urges again.

"Have it, Love," he murmured, running his thumb over his lips. "And when you realize you need help… call me."

"I don't have your number," she said, and then felt foolish afterward, because she wanted to say something about how she didn't need him, but it just came out lame.

"I'll be around. Simply call."

She met his gaze, something electric passing between them, and then put the ring on her finger.

"If you head east, you'll find the man known as, ah… _Captain America_. I do believe he's your father's friend."

_Steve_. Desire for Klaus became overwhelmed by desire for _home_, and she gave him a nod. She hesitated briefly before the door, before steeling her shoulders and flinging it open once more. This time, the sun felt as it always had – pleasant and warm.

She looked back at him once, his eyes on her, his expression brooding, and then strode back out into the light.

SHOVEL TALK

Klaus followed her, made sure that she made it back to the star spangled hero. When the man caught sight of her, he looked shocked for a moment before going to her quickly, asking if she was okay and hugging her. Klaus saw her struggle, saw the monster become visible for a moment, then watched her force it back as she hugged him back.

He had to admit he was impressed. Such control for a new born… he couldn't remember seeing it before.

But the monster still lurked there, and he knew she would need his help. He should snap her neck and take her with him. Or simply leave her behind. He had things he needed to take care of, not the least of which was the traitors in New Orleans. Marcellus or Hayley, or possibly even his own siblings.

But…

Caroline glanced back, as though she felt his gaze on her, and their eyes locked across the distance between them. She lifted her head, expression proud, and Klaus felt a smirk cover his lips.

But traitors would be there when he returned. And he wanted to see how this would play out.

**AN: And there it was – the prelude. This will be the heaviest part. From here on out, it will mostly be light. **


	2. JARVIS

**AN: So, here is the official "first chapter" of this story… which is becoming an actual story, with like serious themes and stuff instead of the light hearted "let's threaten Caroline's boyfriend" story I planned for it to be. Apparently I couldn't just write Caroline's HYDRA and death experience off, and now we're actually dealing with the fallout and stuff. But hopefully you still like it?**

**JARVIS**

"What is _that_?"

Caroline glanced up from her text book to see Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye, staring at her with a bag of M&amp;Ms between his teeth and a bowl of popcorn in his arms. He was staring at the text book in her hands, _Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture_, as though he had never seen a book before.

"I could be way off, but I believe it's a textbook," she replied, and she could practically hear Clint's thoughts – _God she sounds so much like her father_ – and then observed the way his eyes narrowed. Because yeah, Caroline could be sarcastic, but it usually came with a certain level of charm that her father often lacked.

These days, she often lacked it as well.

"I know it's a textbook, Little Stark. But that's not _your_ text book. You're taking Interior Design. I remember that. That book is not about Interior Design."

"Brilliant deduction, Barton. I changed my major."

She had been dreading the conversation. When someone finally realized that books about cloth texture and the importance of lighting were replaced by _The Art of War_ and history texts on empires long gone. But it had been a month and no one had seemed to notice – no one but Natasha, who had looked at the book with curious eyes, but hadn't remarked, and Pepper, who had tried to talk her into talking to someone, but Caroline had told her that _this_, adding a bit of spice to her life, was doing more for her in the wake of torture than any specialist could.

She was pretty sure they both thought she had just picked up an extra course, though. Not that she had changed her major altogether.

"You did _what_?" she winced, her suspicions proven true at Pepper's voice. She glanced over the back of the couch, to see that her dad and Pep had followed Barton into the room, and now both of them were staring at her.

"Hey guys," she said with a weak smile that had her dad charging over, looking for all the world like the responsible parent he had never been very good at being.

"Were you going to tell me about this sudden change of heart?" he demanded with crossed arms and a frown, and Caroline gave an uneasy shrug.

"Probably. I mean, I was on a four year plan. This changes things."

"This changes – _Caroline_, I don't care about the extra years. I care about the fact that you made a huge life decision when you were…"

He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, and the air in the den grew suffocating. Caroline stared down at the pages of her book, but the words ran together, and she had to release the edges, when she felt paper begin to give under her grip.

She knew what her dad had been about to say – how could she make a huge life decision when she was still recovering from her kidnapping. And that's what they all thought it was; a kidnapping. They had no _idea_ about the torture, because she had returned to them without a scratch. So how was she supposed to tell them about the darkest parts of her when…

_Blue eyes and a smirking face and lips painted red with blood._

_ "Vampire, Love. You're a vampire."_

_ Turning her life upside down, because the darkest parts of her were a monster, and she never wanted this sort of life for herself._

_ "And when you realize you need help… call me."_

She hadn't. Not once in the six weeks since she had returned to the tower had she called out for him, though she had been tempted. She very nearly had, when three days after her return her stomach had been gnawing with pain and hunger and she'd almost dug her teeth into Thor's neck, and the God had never had a clue.

She had almost called, but she hadn't.

"I realized I didn't want to waste my life being girly little Caroline anymore," she said, and her voice was sharper than her father deserved – he was worried, and didn't he have every reason in the world to worry?

His daughter was dead, even if he didn't know it.

"Caroline," Pepper said, her eyes softening and she reached out for her. Caroline recoiled, making Pepper flinch back with a hurt expression that sent a bolt of guilt through her. She had always gotten along well with Pepper, had never been the brat some might have expected when she and Tony began to date… and now she was being a bitch.

But better a bitch than Pepper dead, because all Caroline could concentrate on was the steady beat of the other woman's heart, and how easy it would be to sink her fangs into her jugular. She glanced at the clock. It was 4 pm. No wonder she was so testy – she'd missed her 3 o'clock snack, she'd been so busy studying.

"Look, maybe I don't want to be the sparkling socialite anymore. Maybe… maybe the next time I'm kidnapped, I want to understand _why_, instead of just being afraid" – she tucked her book under her arm and gave her head a shake, using her hair to hide her eyes as best she could. She knew what they probably looked like – dark and hungry and something she didn't want these people, _her family_, to see – "so yeah, I changed my major. And no, I didn't tell you. Because I knew you would ask me why, and I didn't feel like talking about it. I figured you of all people would understand _that_."

She directed that at Tony, knowing it was a cheap shot, but God if it could get her out of there, if it could keep him safe from her, then she would take cheap shots. She would let him think she blamed him. She would let him _hate_ her. Because at least he would be alive.

"Yeah," Tony's spine stiffened and he mouth tightened, and Caroline knew her words had struck bullseye. They had always been the best at hurting each other, after all. Wasn't that what families did? "Yeah, I understand it."

She heard Pepper lecture Tony as she left, and Barton make his quick escape from the bickering couple, but Caroline didn't let herself feel the guilt. She _couldn't_ feel the guilt.

She was too damn hungry.

"Tell me it arrived today, JARVIS," she said when she entered her room, tossing her book to the bed and making a beeline for the mini fridge in the corner. It had once held water and Gatorade and a handful of chocolate bars. Now she opened it to reveal bags of blood carefully lined up.

"Yes, Miss Caroline. As you can see, freshly stocked. I believe there is even some B positive."

"Mmm, my favorite," Caroline replied, and tore into the bag with her fangs, moaning as the blood hit her tongue and her hunger was assuaged. She looked in the mirror and watched as color came back to her cheeks, and she wondered what everyone must think, of the how sickly she looked half the time.

"Miss Caroline" – she swore JARVIS hesitated for a moment, and commended her father's abilities, that he could make an AI actually act uncertain – "your hunger appears to be getting worse."

Caroline tossed the empty bag into the garbage bag she kept hidden under bed and didn't say anything. It had been JARVIS, that had realized what was going on with her, and she had managed to get it to remain quiet on what was happening… and okay, maybe she had done a bit of fiddling with its program, but what was the point of being a genius' daughter if you didn't pick up a thing or two? Either way, she had JARVIS on her team, keeping her block stocked and keeping intruders out when she got particularly hungry.

"Perhaps we should tell Sir about your… _condition_."

"No!" Caroline reels around in panic, though there isn't anywhere in particular to look in order to beseech JARVIS. He is everywhere, after all. "JARVIS, you can't. I… they wouldn't understand."

And how could they? How could she look her father in the eye and tell him that she was every monster he'd ever promised her wasn't hidden under bed? That he had become a super hero to save himself, and then to save her, but in the end it was all for nothing, because she was tortured and then shot, and now she had to live with a beast inside her that would barely be restrained.

JARVIS was silent, and Caroline bit her lip, thinking she might have to reprogram him again. Then her cell went off. She picked it up and saw that she had received a text from an unknown number. She frowned and open the message, and then dropped the phone with a horrified half shriek.

"Miss Caroline?"

Caroline didn't reply to JARVIS, slowly walking to the phone and picking it up. She looked at the picture that had been sent and the phone began to crack under her grip, until another text came from the same number.

_He's all yours, Love. All you have to do is ask._

She dropped the phone on her bed and paced restlessly to her window. She looked out over the New York skyline, but there was nothing to be seen there but grey buildings and blue sky. Cheerful and bright, and not at all want she needed. She paced back to her bed and looked down at the phone, then stalked over to her closet, and rustled though the clothes there.

"Miss Caroline-"

"Stop JARVIS," she said, already walking back to the bed and the phone. "Just… stop. For a second."

She looked at the photo once more, and then had to drop the phone again, so she could stare at the man on her screen without breaking the delicate device. She allowed herself a moment to wonder how Klaus had gotten her number – and it had to be Klaus. It had to be, because no one else knew. No one else knew exactly what HYDRA had been trying to do to her… no one living, but Klaus and the man in the picture.

_Bakshi_.

She didn't know if that was his first or last name, just that they had called him Bakshi, and he had been in charge of the initiative to… to…

_Pain and pulsating lights and feeling so very, _very_ confused. Screaming until her voice was hoarse, until no sound came out, and then still screaming, just without sound. Begging them to stop, but not being able to make them. Because they wanted her to forget herself, and no matter how much she tried, she _couldn't_. She tried and she couldn't and –_

_ Where is he?_

She sent the three words to Klaus and then sat, waiting for his reply. It didn't take long to come. It was just a few words – an address.

"Miss Caroline-"

"If anyone asks, I went to the library, JARVIS," she ordered, and she knew that her eyes had leaked black, that the veins beneath them were stark, her fangs dropped, but she didn't care.

She wanted blood.

SHOVEL-TALK

Klaus was sitting at a table outside a café, sipping a coffee and as though he hadn't a care in the world when she arrived. He raised a brow when she sat in the chair across from him and without preamble asked, "Where is he?"

"Hello to you, too, Love. It's been a while."

Exactly six weeks and three days, but who was counting? Caroline stared at him, with her arms crossed, and tried not to remember the last time she had seen him. When he had given her his blood, because he had seen something in her he wanted to save. When he had been covered in blood and they (mostly him) had mowed through HYDRA agents, until she had been the recipient of a bullet that ended her human life, and led to…

"You look awful."

She rolled her eyes at his words and tapped her fingers on the table top.

"Lovely compliment, Klaus. But I'm not here for niceties. _Where. Is. He_?"

Klaus sighed and got to his feet, offering her a hand to help her up as well, but ignored it and stood on her own. He merely gave her a too-pleasant smirk and motioned for her to lead the way into a nearby alley. In another life, she would have never done so. But now she was a vampire, and what the hell did a vampire have to fear?

Perhaps she should have feared _him_. Because the second they were far enough down the alley to no longer be easily noticed from the street, she was slammed into the wall, his hand around her neck. She hissed at him, her fangs falling, and he hissed right back, with double fangs and yellow eyes – the visage of a monster that was similar to her, but not quite the same.

"Demands are not something I bow to easily, _Caroline_. Particularly not when they come from a baby vampire _I_ sired. I gave you eternal life, please don't make me ended."

She wanted to tell him to do it. To end it and let her die, because better that than being a monster. Except the words wouldn't come. She couldn't force them out because… because…

"Starve yourself all you want, Sweetheart" – he released his grip on her, and she fell back to her feet and glared at him, rubbing her neck – "but you want to survive. Else you wouldn't continue to drink blood. I will admit I'm impressed, though."

"By what?" Caroline growled in return. "My mad dangling skills?"

"No, your… _mad_ control skills. You should have torn into the throat of every human you encountered by now. The blood lust, when it's new and fresh… it's overwhelming. Yet you've resisted, even when half starved. Like I said, I'm impressed. But it won't last."

"What do you mean, it won't last?" Caroline asked his back as he continued to walk down the alley. She had to take two steps for his every one and was almost jogging to keep up for him. "No matter how close it gets, I've resisted. It _will_ last."

"No, it won't" – he stopped suddenly and she nearly ran into him as he whirled toward her, his blue eyes nearly wild – "you are starving yourself, Love. And eventually you will break. Perhaps you'll last another six weeks. Perhaps another day. But you _will_ break. I thought to leave it until you did… but I'm not sure you would forgive yourself, killing someone you loved. It's never easy."

"You've done it before?"

Klaus didn't reply, merely turned and began to walk once more. Caroline gritted her teeth, because she didn't want more _questions_, she just wanted to know how to be a monster… without being a monster.

"I decided to bring you here instead."

He stopped at the end of the alley, and Caroline looked across the street, to see the building outside with Bakshi had been photographed.

"It is not all that remains of HYDRA, but he is in there. He will not survive the day, Caroline. If you don't kill him, I will."

Caroline didn't say anything, but him being the one to kill Bakshi… that wasn't an option. Not when Caroline remembered every moment spent with the man with such soul breaking clarity that her fingers actually dug into the brick of the alley, sending cracks out. Klaus watched her and said nothing.

"He's mine," she said at last, and she could feel her fangs, sharp in her mouth, which was all but watering at the thought of Bakshi's blood. Of tearing out his throat and making sure he would never do to another, what he had tried to do to her.

"Well then, Love… lead the way."

Perhaps it should have made her suspicious, the way he so gracefully allowed her to take charge. She had seen him that day on the helicarrier, the way he tore through HYDRA agents as though they were nothing… but her mind was already focused on Bakshi and what she would do to him.

She never even thought about the fact that he very likely would not be alone.

The first guard put a bullet in her shoulder, and she found herself looking at it in surprise as pain shot along her arm.

"Don't stop now, Caroline." His voice was a low murmur in her ear, and then he was a blur moving by her, standing behind the guard and twisting his neck, before dropping the limp body to the floor. Caroline stared in blank surprise, and Klaus raised a brow. "Did you really think you could do this with only one casualty?"

He didn't wait for a reply as the next guard came, instead whirling and biting into the man's neck. The scent of blood hit Caroline's nostrils, and she breathed in deeply, her stomach clenching with hunger pains.

When she opened her eyes again, they were black and her fangs had dropped, and the next guard that appeared didn't find his end by Klaus' hand. It was Caroline, digging her fangs into his neck and drawing on his blood hungrily.

It was B+.

She drained the man dry before she came back to herself enough to realize what she had done, and another half dozen guards had joined the first two that Klaus had killed. The man himself was leaning against the wall, watching her, and when she straightened and wiped blood from his lips, Klaus smirked.

"Hungry, Sweetheart?"

"I'm fine," Caroline replied stonily. Her shoulder had healed, but the bullet wound remained, and she scowled, because she had rather liked that shirt.

And that seemed incredibly shallow – more typical of the girl she had been than the monster she had become – when she was surrounded by bodies. She carefully stepped over them, determinedly not looking down. She knew what their expressions would be – twisted in fear and pain, with glassy, empty eyes.

"Let's find Bakshi."

SHOVEL-TALK

Natasha heard about the argument with Caroline from Clint. She didn't make a habit of interfering with her teammate's personal lives, particularly when those personal lives involved children, but she had noticed a difference in Stark's daughter ever since the girl had managed to escape from HYDRA.

They never had gotten the story from her, of how she had done so. Natasha knew that Steve wrote it off as Caroline being in shock, but Nat knew what shock looked like.

It wasn't clear, haunted eyes. More had happened to her than just torture, but Caroline had managed to avoid the worst of the questions, and those she couldn't avoid, she responded to belligerently, making everyone write her off as just another spoiled brat. And yeah, she was spoiled… but not like _this_.

"Agent Romanoff, I believe Miss Stark might be in need of your assistance."

Natasha paused when JARVIS spoke to her, looking up to where she knew there was a camera.

"What's wrong? You didn't sound the alarm, so there can't be a break in…"

If it weren't for the fact that JARVIS was a robot, Natasha might have thought JARVIS hesitated to answer her. But the thought only lasted for a moment, and then it was speaking again.

"Miss Stark is no longer on the premise. She received a text, to which she responded rather violently, and then she took off. I believe she is… she has not been herself lately."

Again, that feeling that there was something off about JARVIS, as though it wished to tell her something else, but then was unable to. Natasha frowned, and filed away the thought that Tony should probably check its systems out, but Caroline was more important at the moment.

"Where did she go?"

When JARVIS rattled off an address, one that Natasha recognized, thanks to Mariah Hill, as a suspected HYDRA safe house, she felt her muscles tighten and her heart grow heavy.

"Where is Cap, JARVIS?"

"On the gym on his floor."

"Great. Tell him to suit up. He's coming as back up."

SHOVEL-TALK

"That's rather dramatic of you, Love."

Caroline ignored Klaus' comment, because it _was_ dramatic, and that's exactly what she had hoped to achieve when she kicked the door down. His comment ruined the effect somewhat, but when Caroline's gaze narrowed in on Bakshi, who stood between a man and woman in lab coats, she didn't really care that Klaus was being a smart ass.

She just cared about Bakshi being _dead_.

"Caroline Stark," Bakshi said, his eyes narrowed. "How… _interesting_ to see you."

"You remember me," Caroline noted coolly, stepping over the broken door. "Good. Then I won't have to remind you."

Klaus wondered if she knew how she looked, strands of hair falling free of her ponytail, her steps falling into that of a prowling predator. Sweat beaded on Bakshi's forehead, and Klaus could smell the man's fear in the air. He might not realize it, but something within him recognized the monster within the pretty blonde and feared it.

Smart man.

For Klaus' part, he didn't fear the predator within Caroline. He was top of the food chain. No, he _hungered_ for it. His plan had been to wait for Caroline to come to him, but when six weeks had passed and no word had arrived, he had grown impatient. He had watched her go to university and change her major, no longer feeling at home in the frivolous world she had once planned to inhabit. He had watched her eye her classmates' necks with hunger, watched time and time she had nearly lost control and them somehow, miraculously, reigned the hunger back in. He had never seen anything like it in a new vampire, and he knew that someday she would be truly spectacular with the proper guidance.

Klaus planned to be that guidance.

So he had set out to procure something that Caroline would be unable to refuse. She probably didn't realized the extent to which her vampirism controlled her actions and desires, but Klaus did. And when he had found Bakshi, the mastermind behind the program that had seen Caroline tortured, he knew he had stumbled upon a gold mine.

She might loathe him, what he had made her – but she would loathe Bakshi more. And impressive control or not, no newly created vampire would be able to resist the lure of revenge on one that had done them wrong as Bakshi had Caroline.

"I am surprised to see you here," Bakshi said, easing his way around the desk in the room. "Should I be expecting the Avengers soon?"

"No Avengers," Caroline replied, and she flashed forward as Bakshi's hand reached under the desk, pulling it out and snapping the bone with a quick twist that made the man scream in pain and fall to his knees, "just us, and a conversation long overdue."

She backhanded him across the room, before flashing to the scientists.

"The two of you will go home and forget all of this. You're turning over a new leaf, and tomorrow you'll find new jobs that actually benefit humanity. Maybe serving at a homeless shelter?"

The humans' eyes glazed over and they nodded blankly, before heading for the door. Klaus contemplated simply snapping their necks, but looking at Caroline he knew it was probably too soon for such blatant disregard for human life. These ones hadn't been actively trying to harm them, so he allowed them to leave, because Caroline looked at Bakshi with that dark look in her eyes, and if seeing Caroline embrace the dark side of her nature meant letting a pair of useless humans walk away? Then so be it.

She had already forgotten about the scientists, and was stalking toward Bakshi, who had managed to drag himself to his feet against the wall.

"What are you?" he hissed out.

Caroline didn't reply, instead she flashed forward and lifted him by the throat, shoving him into the wall.

"Beg me for your life," she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper filled with deadly intent. Klaus couldn't see her expression, but whatever Bakshi saw there had him paling.

"Please," he replied. "Please. I can give you anything."

"Anything?" Caroline asked silkily, and Bakshi nodded as well as he could with her hand around his throat.

"Anything. Power… money… HYDRA's reach is far, you can have whatever you want."

Klaus heard Caroline let out a huff of amusement.

"What I _want_, is my life back. But you can't give me that."

Bakshi's eyes widened in terror, and then Caroline had pulled him down and dug her fangs into his neck, attacking the skin viciously. She turned them around so Klaus could see her face once more, her eyes dark and veins prominent. There wasn't hunger there – she wasn't draining Bakshi because she wanted his _blood_. She did it because she wanted his _pain_, and when she finally snapped his neck and dropped his body, there was a dark pleasure in her eyes that said she had enjoyed it, getting her revenge on the man that had tried to take away pieces of her until nothing remained but a puppet.

In that moment, she looked like a Queen, and all of his plans to take her and mold her into a progeny in his image dissipated. She had withstood days of torture as a human, to come out the other side not only still Caroline Stark, but determined to get even on her captors. She had experienced death, and then woken again, only to show more control than he had ever seen. She was not the type that would be so easily manipulated, and as he stared her down, Bakshi's limp boy at her feet, he found that he didn't wish her to be.

No, now he wished for something _else_.

"The last time we were in this position, you kissed me," he mused, remembering the day she had been turned, how she had pulled him into her, tugged his hair and whimpered against his lips.

"The last time we were in this position, I didn't know what was happening to me."

This time, it was Klaus' turn to flash to her, to pull her head back and seal his lips over hers. He could taste Bakshi's blood on her tongue, and sucked it, making her growl into his mouth. Unlike last time, it wasn't blood lust that made the hunger rise in them both, but _power lust_, the feel of knowing that you stood at the top of the food chain, that no one would hurt you again.

He swore he could taste freedom in her kiss.

Footsteps interrupted them, and Klaus growled angrily, his eyes glowing and fangs own as a woman burst into the room, gun at the ready. Her face was odd – the visage of an Asian woman not quite right, and he could see a shadow of a second face beneath the one she wore. Some sort of mask, to judge by the torn away section on her cheek.

Another time, he might have found that curious. In this time, he was simply angry.

The woman didn't have time to shout for backup before Klaus had ripped out her heart, letting her body drop to the ground.

"What the _hell_, Klaus?" Caroline demanded, taking an angry step toward him, but something on the desk caught her eye, making her tirade stop before it could begin. She stepped up to it and lifted a file. Klaus caught sight of pictures – one of a dark haired woman, the other of the woman he had just killed – and Caroline's face paled as she read. She looked up at him, and gone was the lust of earlier, replaced by an expression that seemed almost sick. "You killed her."

"She had a gun-"

"Kara Palamas… _Agent 33_. She was a SHIELD Agent, and they brainwashed her, and you _killed her_. That could have been me!"

Klaus took a step back at the anger in her voice, at the venom in her gaze. She clutched the file so tight it crumpled beneath her fingers.

"It wasn't you, though. You were far stronger, Caroline. _You_ resisted. She didn't. The weak often die in this world."

"They had her for over a month! I was with them for a _week_. It's not comparable, Klaus. I _tried_ to break for them, I just couldn't."

"And you never would have." He was positive about that. The human woman he had been compelled to save had looked at him with such clear eyes, had looked at HYDRA with such a savage expression, and he knew, in the center of his gut, that she would have never been able to give into them. But Caroline was shaking her head.

"You don't _know_ that. Kara… she deserved a chance to get herself back. And you killed her."

"Don't play the innocent, Caroline. You killed HYDRA agents, murdered Bakshi in cold blood… you're not the angel in this situation."

She stared at him, and her chin came up, and once again he thought how regal she looked.

And how very distant.

"You're right," she agreed. "I'm not an angel. I let the thought of vengeance get the better of me. But I won't again. Lose my number. I'll do this without you."

"And how do you plan to do that, Caroline? Will you continue to starve yourself, drinking only enough to sate your hunger for a few hours at a time?" He stepped into her space, looming above her, instinct telling him he needed her to submit, and submit _now_, or he would never make her. She stared up at him defiantly, and he grasped her at the base of her chin. "You're a time bomb, Caroline Stark. Perhaps you won't explode today, or even in a year… but someday? Someday you will lose that precious control, and when you do the whole world will pay. Are you so full of pride that you would walk away from someone that could help you on the weak excuse of _morals_ that you've so easily set aside?"

She stared up at him, and then her eyes darted to the body of the woman – _Kara Palamas_ – and she tore herself free from his grasp.

"I don't want your kind of help," she said, putting the distance of the room between them. "_Help_ isn't what you want to offer. It's conditioning, just like HYDRA. Only instead of pain and torture, you use blood and revenge. I don't see the difference."

Klaus said nothing, because hadn't he realized himself, just moments before, that he had taken the wrong approach with her? He had wished to mold her, and now she would walk away.

He could stop her, of course, but he could hear the Super Soldier and the Spy entering the building. If they saw Caroline amongst this, he would lose his ability to reach her so easily. He saw her hear them as well, her eyes widening, and then she flashed away, and he let her go.

He considered killing them, Captain America and the Black Widow. Klaus didn't like rebellion, and perhaps their deaths would curb that aspect of Caroline's nature… or it would set her against him even more. And she was contrary enough for it to be the latter.

He looked at the bodies of the woman and Bakshi, and caught sight of the file Caroline had discarded on the desk. He stepped up to it briefly, eyes running quickly over the page. The woman had been a distinguished agent of SHIELD, before HYDRA had gotten her. He read some of the methods that had been used on her and frowned at the thought of them being used on Caroline. She had made Bakshi's death far too quick.

The steps of the two Avengers reached the floor, and Klaus set the file down once more, escaping quickly through the window.

By the time Steve and Natasha finished combing through the house, all they could report to the other Avengers was that it had been a massacre, but whoever was responsible for it had managed to get away.

SHOVEL-TALK

JARVIS didn't alarm Sir or Miss Stark to the presence outside the Tower. It had done scans, and in doing so discovered their guest was of the same nature as the daughter. JARVIS wasn't a full AI capable of complete independent thought, but it had enough ability to be able to make what Sir had determined as "minor" decisions.

"You should remove yourself from the premise."

There was no craft that could have carried the man this high on the Tower, but JARVIS knew enough about the biology of the creature by studying Miss Stark to know that it may not be needed. The man looked around in confusion at the bodiless voice.

"I am JARVIS, a program created by Mr. Stark to keep everything from this Tower to his business running smoothly, and you interfere with his daughter's life."

"A robot?" The man's expression was amused as he turned his gaze back to the Tower. The Avengers were within, loudly speaking over one another, and there was Caroline, tucked in a corner, pretending to read a large tome while really looking at her housemates with longing eyes. "Are you threatening me?"

"Not at all. Merely informing you that I have the ability and the order to eliminate any threats to the inhabitants of this Tower."

"Hmmm… well then, robot, I'll bow to your threats this once. But only because I cannot do anything at the moment. Your Miss Stark and I had a bit of a spat, and she'd rather not speak to me. But there will come a time when she will _need_ to. I suggest you get in touch with me when that time comes. Or the only threat to this Tower will come from within."

The man stepped off the Tower before JARVIS could inquire as to how he was supposed to contact him, but then there was really no need. He had already acquired the number from Miss Stark's phone – as well as the picture that had been sent.

JARVIS knew it matched with one of the bodies that had been discovered by Mr. Rogers and Agent Romanoff.

**AN: And there it is – a bit of threatening from JARVIS at the end (because that is what this story is supposed to be about) an also murder. I felt bad about killing Kara like I did, but considering what happens to her on Agents of SHIELD… you know what? This is probably a kinder end. **


End file.
